Simple pleasures or pure indulgence?

Yesterday I spent a rather lovely day at The Royal Spa, Tunbridge Wells. A christmas gift from my best friend.  We arrived just before nine and treated ourselves to a pot of tea and some thick granary toast with real butter and homemade raspberry jam.  With my rapidly approaching departure to Canada we wanted to make the  most of some one to one girl time that so often escapes us.  We checked into the spa and put on our white fluffy dressing gowns and were whisked off for a whistle stop tour before being left to our own devices.  We had a full body massage booked for 11.30 and a facial at 3.30.  As we swam, very leisurely, up and down the pool we planned our day. Eager to spend quality time together and, of course, to get our money's worth. We decided to chill by the pool and in the spa bath until half eleven. After lunch, served on low tables lounging on beanbags, we would rest in the bedouin style bedroom then back to the pool area.  Here we would apply our 'Morrocan Mist' treatment, a scrub, detox gel and a moisturiser.  This would be followed by our facial.

So this is what really happened.  All went well up till lunch time.  Have you ever tried to sit elegantly on a squidgy, unruly beanbag in a dressing gown without losing any dignity? No? Well let me tell you it's not an easy task.   If my friend could have disowned me she would have!  I think my first error was to pull it away from the wall. Then I plumped it up, sat on it and just sort of disappeared off the back with my legs in the air!  However, lunch was beautiful and tasted just as good as it looked.  Fed and watered we retired to the bedroom where we chatted and flicked through magazines. Then... we fell asleep.  We awoke about 5 minutes before our next treatment!

I had to laugh.  We had been looking forward to this day for weeks.  My friend had paid goodness knows how much for it and there we were... asleep!  We both agreed that we would, however, do it all over again!  Thank you Jan, snoring aside, it was a lovely day!

At 7 o'clock one morning I made a snap decision to go for a walk with my camera! The sky looked beautiful with a pinky orange glow that I knew would not last much past 8 o'clock. I set off for the beach which is about a five minute walk from the house. Our local fox, I call him Charlie, was just coming off the night shift. Unfortunately so was I, not quite alert enough and thus missing a great photo opportunity. I settled myself on the beach for a few minutes and just snapped away! Taking the circular route to return home via the lagoon, I was surprised to see that some parts of the lagoon were still frozen. Almost as surprised as the rather sleepy moorhen who came to an abrupt halt when he swam into the edge of the ice! Early morning is probably my favorite time out there. There was a faint hum of traffic far in the distance, but other than that it was just me and the birds, two of whom I caught canoodling on a bench!



Home and breakfast. English muffins with marmalade. On reflection a little more effort perhaps next time? Sipping my hot tea from a Maxwell William White Basic mug I remembered the fuss I made about collecting a Royal Albert Country Roses tea set. This, I'm ashamed to say, is languishing at the back of the cupboard. Next time.

Sitting in front of the fire looking out over the garden a black bird appeared from nowhere on the guttering above the workshop window. He hopped down onto the fence. Then his mate appeared from under the roof tile. It appears that we have a wee small family in residence in our workshop! Better not tell the cats! This discovery, I have to say, made up for missing Charlie. Truly a fantastic morning.

Welcome to my new Blog!

Life’s simple pleasures is a blog that is focussed on just that. I get a great deal of enjoyment just exploring and experiencing everything life has to offer. From a few minutes at sunrise when the light is so perfect to a whole hour of soothing piano music playing softly whilst I’m baking. My second source of pleasure is recording and sharing those moments with others.

I created this blog, with the help of a dear friend, in an attempt to share these pleasures with a wider audience in the hope of spreading a little joy. I hope that you find something here that you will enjoy. If you find something that helps lighten your load, solves a problem or simply makes you laugh out loud then it has all been worthwhile.

My thanks to Lorrie, who got this blog up and running for me.